New York Giants Saw Life Without Beckham and It Was Bad

The Odell Beckham Jr. trade talks for the New York Giants may be fun, but they saw what it was like without him on the field. It wasn’t fun.

There is no question the wide receiver is a headache at times. He’s too impulsive for his own good and still hasn’t learned to control his emotions. Nevermind the questions of drug use yet to be answered. Nonetheless, there’s no arguing he is one of the best wide receivers in football and the Giants are a better team when he’s on the field. If people don’t want to believe it, all they have to do is examine how the offense was once he left the picture.

Beckham played the first four games of the 2017 season before bowing out with an injury. In that time quarterback Eli Manning had six touchdown passes. Three of them were caught by Beckham. Over the final 11 games he started, Manning had just 13 touchdown passes. His TD throws per game average went from 1.5 to 1.18 with Beckham’s exit. Not only that but the Giants managed just one game over 300 yards passing in the 12 games after he got hurt.

It’s just the sort of talent that you can’t replace no matter how well you scheme from week to week.

Keeping Beckham comes down to the new coach

In the end, this decision of whether or not to trade Beckham rests on the new head coach. Pat Shurmur knew what he was getting into when he took the job last month. Managing personalities is part of what he’s asked to do. He should know that considering he held a head coaching job once before in Cleveland. Sure OBJ might be a bit more of a challenge than he’s used to but if Tom Coughlin could do it, why can’t he?

The message will have to be made clear to Beckham from the start that he must behave himself. He’ll get his money soon enough, but if he continues to prove a distraction, then he’s going to force the team into an unwelcome decision. Not to mention he won’t make himself look as desirable to the rest of the league as well.